A while before this, I saw a travel documentary that went to Iran and found some middle-aged
veterans of the recent war with Iraq (started by Saddam, who thought he'd take advantage of
perceived weakness in an Iranian military that had lost its key patron, the Shah). The vets
were still practicing the martial arts they took to war.

Rather than have my group of furry foreigners take care of a very local problem, I decided
it would be better if the Iranian vets were Shiah Moslems, come to Iraq on a pilgrimage,
who had also heard about the pet market bombings.

From another direction, I made use of a cliche in Asian martial arts movies: the smiling
little old man who skillfully cleans the floor with the much younger toughs who thought
they were going to mug him. The old man has grown old by surviving fights, and learning
much from those fights.